Missing Pieces: Erica Garcia cold case update

HOUSTON — In an empty area on the west aspect of Houston, it’s onerous to look previous one mom’s grief.

Margarita Garcia’s daughter, Erica Garcia, was murdered there.

Chilly case: 14-year-old lady’s rape, homicide nonetheless a thriller

“She was 14. She was a strong-headed lady … very fairly,” Margarita stated about her daughter.

Her mates referred to as her “Tweety” and it is a identify she had tattooed. She had simply made the cheerleading squad at Sharpstown Center Faculty.

“I didn’t get to see her get married, I didn’t get to see her have kids,” Margarita stated.

She nonetheless doesn’t know who did it or why they killed her daughter.

“She didn’t deserve this, she didn’t need to die like this,” Margarita stated.

The empty area was once the location of the outdated Alief Common Hospital. A safety guard making the rounds discovered Erica’s physique on June 7, 1997.

“I’m assured sufficient to say that there are a minimum of two folks on the market that know what occurred,” Houston Police Division Detective Ramon Cervantes stated.

He works with HPD’s Chilly Case Unit.

Investigators stated Erica was raped and strangled along with her personal clothes however they’ve by no means been capable of pinpoint a motive.

Nevertheless, police can pinpoint the place Erica was earlier than she was killed. The night time earlier than her demise, her aunt dropped her off at a teen membership referred to as New Dimension.

“Her good friend met her exterior on Beechnut and I watched her go in and that was the final time I noticed her,” Erica’s aunt, Brenda Garcia-Chavez, stated.

Derek Spier remembers when it occurred.

“Again early 90s, there have been some gangs of alternative round right here,” Spier stated.

He’s retired now, however on the time he was an HPD sergeant assigned to Sharpstown Center Faculty.

“My companion and I might be out right here each day earlier than and after college to ensure the youngsters had been OK,” he stated.

Nonetheless recent on his thoughts is the dialog he had with Erica earlier than her demise.

“She was bored with the life she was residing and he or she needed to vary it. She needed to start out new,” Spier stated.

Now 25 years later, police and the Garcia household imagine the killer remains to be on the market. The chilly case workforce is conducting new interviews and what proof could be submitted for testing for DNA.

“So now, with the DNA we hope to retrieve from the proof we do have from the scene, we’re hoping that submitting that once more and utilizing the know-how at the moment with the DNA, we’re capable of get a clearer image of presumably who was concerned,” Cervantes stated.

Within the meantime, the Garcia household has spent their very own time pounding the pavement.

“We now have tried … we’ve got redone flyers, we’ve got began in the beginning, we’ve got come all the best way down Beechnut,” Garcia-Chavez stated.

They’ve taken all of it the best way again to the empty area the place Margarita’s tears are met by new hope. It grows in what was the darkest of locations.

“I’m not going to surrender. I’m not going to surrender. I want closure,” Margarita stated.

There’s an as much as $5,000 reward for data resulting in an arrest. You probably have any data, name Crime Stoppers at (713) 222-TIPS (8477).